


sliding into your piazza dms

by ChickenXD



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, M/M, TA Connor AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-07-14 19:48:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16047341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChickenXD/pseuds/ChickenXD
Summary: Hank comes into Connor's office hours for help.





	1. office hours

**Author's Note:**

> TA Connor Student Hank AU by @cnnrfckr on twitter. being a college student myself i sure as hell wish i have a ta who loves me like connor,

11:43 PM  9/12/2039

 

To: Connor Arkay 

Subject: Autodesk Fusion Error

 

Connor,

Sorry for emailing you on a Saturday night. I’m trying to do the homework for Monday and for some reason my model can’t be rendered out of sculpt mode. It says something about planes intersecting but I don’t know how to solve it. I’ve attached a screenshot for you to look at, can you tell me how to fix this?

 

Hank Anderson

  
  


12:05 AM  9/13/2039

 

From: Connor Arkay 

Subject: Re: Autodesk Fusion Error

 

Someone just asked the same issue on Slack, so you might also want to check the forum as well. The shape you’re making is kind of complicated, but since it’s relatively geometric, I think you can do it outside of sculpt mode with the extrude and revolve function. Don’t forget that you can cut into objects with the extrude function as well. I personally don’t like using the sculpt environment because it can be fussy with shapes, so I would suggest you do as much of your modelling outside of the sculpt environment.

I hope you find this useful. If you still have questions, I will hold office hours tomorrow from 2-3 PM. 

 

Connor Arkay

M.S in Computer Science, May 2040

University of Michigan

  
  


12:10 PM  9/13/2039

 

To: Connor Arkay 

Subject: Re: Re: Autodesk Fusion Error

 

Connor,

I appreciate your quick response. I’ll try that tonight and if I can’t work it out, I’ll ask during your office hours. I’m going to meet a friend so I might come around 2:30 PM. Why are you home on a Saturday night? Go party, you look like you need it.

 

Hank Anderson

  
  


12:12 AM  9/13/2039

 

From: Connor Arkay 

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Autodesk Fusion Error

 

I’m still working on grading your quizzes from Thursday. The grades will be posted on Blackboard by Monday. I already went out with my brother for dinner earlier, but thank you for your concern.

 

Connor Arkay

M.S in Computer Science, May 2040

University of Michigan

  
  


12:18 PM  9/13/2039

 

To: Connor Arkay 

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Autodesk Fusion Error

 

Damn, Dr. Stern is really making you work, huh. Don’t forget to get some sleep. 

 

Hank Anderson

  
  
  


Someone’s already in the office by the time Hank arrives, so he waits by the door outside. 

This is the first time he’s been to office hours – it’s about halfway through the semester, so it was probably about time anyway. It’s nice of Connor to hold his office hours on Sunday when homeworks are due on Monday, but then again, it’s Sunday. Nobody wants to get out of their homes, so they’d rather ask on Piazza. 

He takes a peek into the office. Connor’s wearing a navy windbreaker with a yellow M embroidered on the left side over a black shirt, and black ripped jeans – his yellow lanyard is hanging out of his pocket. He’s sitting on his desk, holding a big glass of cold brew in his hand as he listens to the student. 

Oh, that voice is so annoyingly familiar – fucking Gavin. 

The other TA, Elijah, is a lot more upfront about it. There must have been a couple times when he straight up yelled at Gavin to shut the fuck up during lab, but Connor would never. Hank’s pretty sure Connor’s tired of him, too – hell, everyone in the class is tired of Gavin, always asking unnecessary questions during class; to make himself look smarter or to get attention from Dr. Stern? Who knows. If he’s getting any attention, it definitely isn’t the good kind. 

_ “Yeah, so I was wondering if it’s possible to make sure the inside of the pipe is hollow–” _

See? Absolutely useless questions. He doesn’t even hear Connor say anything.

He takes out his phone – it’s two thirty on the dot. Who knows how long Gavin’s been in there, but he can wait for five minutes, maybe.

  
  


Two thirty eight. 

Hank finally walks into the room, and Connor instantly perks up, turns his attention to Hank. 

“Oh, Hank! You emailed me last night.”

“Yeah, couldn’t quite figure it out.”

Gavin turns to Hank, smiling, but the disappointment on his face is pretty apparent. Was he really hoping to hog Connor’s attention for the rest of office hours? 

“Anyway, if you don’t mind, I’ll help Hank real quick with his model,” Connor tells Gavin – “We should be done in about ten minutes.”

Hank doesn’t want to make assumptions, but is that a hint of relief in Connor’s voice? Still polite as ever, though.

“Nah, I’ll just send you an email later,” Gavin replied as he turns to leave, “Thanks, Connor.”

“Yeah, thank you for coming!”

They watch as Gavin leaves the room, and walks down the hallway. 

Connor sighs loudly before he takes a sip of his coffee, shaking his head. 

“How long was he here for?”

“Probably about half an hour,” Connor replied, “I don’t know, I kind of tuned him out halfway through.”

“So you wouldn’t have said anything if I didn’t come here?”

“Well, he’s a student, he deserves my time and attention, too.”

He stands up and gestures at Hank to sit down on his desk. 

“Do you have your laptop with you or do you want to pull it up on mine?”

“I got it.”

Hank sits down and takes out his laptop from his backpack. He opens it and enters his password–

The first thing that pops up on the screen is his browser – he suddenly remembers the Youtube video he was watching last night. It’s nothing weird, just a video of a guy cooking for his cats–

He quickly closes the tab, though, and quietly hopes Connor didn’t see that. He clicks on the Autodesk Fusion shortcut on his screen and waits for it to load. 

He scans the desk as they’re waiting – there’s the big glass of cold brew that Connor was drinking, Connor’s phone, his fancy iPad and pen–

He remembers how Connor likes to balance the pen on his nose in the lab. Hank’s attempted it himself a few times, but the pen always inevitably falls off his face after three whole seconds – who knows how Connor does it.

“And this is the model?” 

“Oh.” The model’s finished loading on his computer, “Yeah, it’s kind of a mess.”

“Do you mind if I plug my mouse in?”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

Connor pulls out the connector from his laptop and plugs it into Hank’s USB port – the light on his mouse turns green, and Connor moves it slightly to see if it’s working correctly – apparently it is, since he’s now rotating the object.

“So yeah, this little part right here,” Hank points at a part that’s highlighted red on the model, “It keeps saying the planes are intersecting, but I just can’t fucking find the problem.”

“Yeah, that’s alright,” Connor replied, clicking around – “So you made this with a cylinder and modified it?”

“I know you said there’s another way to do it, but I just can’t figure it out.”

Connor clicks the ‘Finish’ button – a window pops up, saying the same exact error that Hank has seen at least five hundred times now, and Connor casually dismisses it. Hank feels a shift in his weight as Connor rests his free hand on the back of the chair that Hank is sitting in.

“So you know you can make a sketch in all three planes, x y and z, right?”

“Yeah.”

He suddenly realizes that Connor’s, like, really close to him. Hank knows he should pay attention to whatever Connor’s talking about, because he’s only got ten minutes with Connor and he’ll have to do the rest of his homework at home tonight and he’ll be fucked if he doesn’t know how to do it–

He still finds himself staring at Connor’s profile instead of the screen, though. He’s never been this close to Connor before, and it’s making him feel… weird… things. Butterflies in his stomach or some shit.

...Connor’s really pretty, Hank suddenly realizes. He’s overheard other students talking about him and speculating whether he’s got something going on with Elijah, since they seem pretty close. Hank knows it’s none of his business, but listening to gossip is fun – and maybe a part of him wishes that rumor isn’t true, cause Connor deserves better. 

“I’m gonna draw a circle right here in the y plane,” Connor continues to explain as he draws it on the screen, “And you see this revolve function, right here?”

“Uh, yeah.”

Hank’s not really listening anymore, too busy staring at Connor. He makes a note to himself to ask more questions in lab, because damn, is it nice having Connor’s full attention.

Connor smells kind of nice, too. Is it his shampoo? His soap? His laundry soap, maybe? Hank’s gotta get on that.

They’re really close, Hank swears he can feel the sleeve of Connor’s jacket brushing against his arm. If he gets up from this seat right now he’s probably going to bump into Connor’s face. It’s… not a bad idea, but he shouldn’t do it. This is a strictly professional setting, Hank, calm down.

“And there we go, that’s done.”

“Oh?”

It really is done, though – Hank tried to make this donut shape for hours last night, and Connor comes in, magic hands or something, and it only took him ten seconds?

“Wait,” Hank sighs, slowly coming back to reality, “Wait, you just did… what?”

“I’ll show you one more time,” Connor replied patiently, “So you make a circle sketch on the y plane, and then use revolve.”

Hank leans closer and watches as Connor drags the circle along, and a donut shape magically appears on the screen. 

“And if you want to control the size of the object, you can use Press Pull, right here,” Connor explains as he clicks another button – an arrow appears, and the donut shrinks and expands as he pulls it. 

“Wow, I can’t believe I fucking spent two hours trying to…” Hank sighs again, “Now I feel dumb.”

“No, no, it’s okay,” Connor reassures him, “There’s a lot of buttons on here, I know. It took me some time to learn what they do, and you’re only a month into the semester.”

Hank turns to look at Connor, who’s smiling at him. 

He’s fucking certain Connor thinks he’s dumb, he just can’t say it to Hank’s face – but Connor’s smile is so sweet and sincere Hank is beginning to have second thoughts. Maybe he actually believes Hank will learn as the semester goes.

“Is there anything else you want to ask?”

“No, that’s it for now,” Hank replied as he closes his laptop, “I think.”

Either way, if being dumb means earning more face time with Connor, maybe it’s not such a bad idea after all.

“I can’t wait to see your final model tomorrow!” Connor said, “If you have more problems, just send me an email or ask it on Piazza. Elijah and I will be watching the forum tonight.”

“Damn, Connor, you were grading quizzes yesterday, and you’re gonna work tonight, too?” he asks as he puts his laptop back into its sleeve, “You ever do anything fun on the weekends?”

“Well, last night I got to hang out with my brother.”

“What did you guys do?”

Hank suddenly remembers that though Connor is younger than him, he’s still his TA – this is a strictly professional setting, he probably shouldn’t be asking this kind of questions–

“Just went to see a movie and got dinner afterwards,” Connor replied, “Have you seen the new Kingsman movie?”

Hank shakes his head, “I don’t like that series to start with.”

“Well, I think it’s still a really fun movie,” he said, “But I mean, I haven’t hung out with Niles in a while. I don’t have a lot of time nowadays, you know, between being a TA, doing my final thesis, helping with Elijah’s startup…”

“Is your brother younger or older than you?”

“He’s four years younger than me,” Connor replied, “He’s an undergrad in art history. I don’t think you’ll see him much around here…”

Connor grabs a picture frame from his shelf and shows it to Hank. It’s a picture of him and another young man who looks almost exactly like him, except he’s wearing a black gown and holding a bunch of flowers.

“This was his high school graduation.”

“Shit, you two look exactly the same.”

“Yeah, we get that a lot.” 

Hank zips up his bag and gets up from the chair. 

“Thank you for your help.”

He almost feels… sad to leave. He knows he’s going to see Connor again tomorrow in class, but that’s a completely different setting – there will be like, sixty other people in the room, and Connor’s attention will probably be spread out on everyone. 

“Yeah, anytime.”

“If you’re not busy next weekend, uh, can we hang out?”

He notices Connor’s eyes widen at the proposal, and he feels his heart rate pick up. 

Fuck, Hank, this is a  _ strictly professional _ relationship. You wanna get hit with a Title IX violation? Just because he’s cute and nice to you doesn’t mean you can just ask him out, he’s your TA.

Connor’s lips form a smile, and he looks away, eyes averting Hank’s gaze, almost as if he’s… embarrassed or something. 

Hank can hear the alarms going off in his head – that was a bad, horrible idea, Hank. 

“Sorry, I… I didn’t mean for it to come across–”

“No, that’s fine,” Connor replied, “If nothing comes up, I should be free this Friday night.”

 


	2. lecture

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this au still has me by the dick so here we go i guess

Always get to class ten minutes before it starts – come any later than that and all the seats at the front will be taken. 

In a class of over sixty, seating is a struggle, and Hank has realized he can’t see the icon of the buttons if he’s sitting in any further than the third row, despite the giant screens at the front. 

He’s been sitting next to these two girls for the past few lectures – Traci and Kelsey. He’s really only talked to Traci, though their interactions so far has been limited to Hank asking to see her notes when he missed something on the presentation. Are they friends? Classmates? Acquaintances? Hank hasn’t been in school in a long time, how do things work nowadays? Either way, he’s getting good notes, so whatever. 

 

“Hey, did you see the group chat last night?”

“You know I have it muted,” Traci replied, “There’s way too many people on there.”

“They found Connor’s Instagram,” Kelsey tells her, “It looks like he hasn’t updated it in a while, but there are pictures from like, his high school.”

“Oh my god?”

“Here.” Kelly hands her phone over to Traci. 

Hank discreetly leans back, so he can look over her shoulder – he can see the username for a second before she scrolls down.

@fishheavennow. Hank makes a note to himself to remember that… for later. 

His eye catches someone walking next to him, and he turns to look. 

It’s Connor – he’s carrying his backpack, and a cup of cold brew in one hand. He’s wearing the same navy windbreaker as he was yesterday, but this time he’s wearing a red shirt with black stripes, and khakis. 

He walks to the front row, to seat at the very end of the table, near the emergency exit, and sets his coffee and backpack down. He starts to take out his laptop before he pauses, as if he remembers something–

He looks up to scan the classroom, and his eyes inevitably meet Hank’s. He smiles as he starts walking towards him. 

Hank swore he felt his body do  _ something _ – his heart starts beating faster, stomach churning – 

Is this because of what Hank said yesterday? 

Hank’s not even going to pretend like he didn’t end up having another midlife crisis because of it. Connor’s probably forgotten it even happened, or he probably thinks Hank is some old creep trying to hit on someone half his age. His mind keeps switching back between “oh, that was just friendly banter,” and “did you just hit on your TA?”

“Hank?”

Suddenly Connor’s standing next to him. Hank swore he felt his brain short circuit for a second before it’s back to normal. He also notices that Traci has closed her phone. 

Act cool, Hank, act cool.

“Hey, Connor.”

“Did you get your model fixed?”

“Yeah, uh, it worked great,” Hank replied – “Watched a couple tutorials online, too.”

More like twenty tutorial videos, but Connor probably doesn’t need to know that. 

“So I think I forgot to get my mouse connector back from yesterday,” Connor said, “Do you still have it?”

“Your mouse connector…”

Oh, right. Connor did plug something in to connect to his wireless mouse. Hank turns to check his USB ports–

It’s such a tiny little thing, it’s not surprising that both of them forgot it was there. He unplugged it and handed it to Connor. 

“Sorry about that.”

“No, you’re good! Thank you!” Connor replied with a smile – the same smile as yesterday, the smile that could potentially restore Hank’s faith in humanity. 

He watches from his seat as Connor turns to walk back to the front. He sits down and plugs the connector into his laptop, then takes out something else from his pocket–

It looks like lip balm. Connor unscrews the cap and applies a thin layer on his lips, smacks his lips, and puts it back into his pocket. 

Yeah, it’s a completely innocent thing – it’s just lip balm, and it’s probably good to take care of your lips so that they’re not dry or anything – but  _ fuck _ did that do something to Hank. He doesn’t even know why, but it’s… kind of hot?

_ Jesus, Hank, leave him alone _ , Hank tells himself.  _ You’re already being a fucking creep, you know that right? _

  
  


@fishheavennow. Hank managed to remember that somehow – probably out of burning curiosity. It’s admittedly a strange username – probably a reference to some show or song Hank’s too old to remember.

It’s exactly as Kelsey said. Connor hasn’t updated it in a while, and the latest post on there is from eight months ago – it’s a picture of some food that seems to have cooked himself. Not the best food porn picture or anything, definitely more like a candid – Hank can still kind of see the mess on Connor’s desk in the background. 

As he scrolls further down, most of the posts are either photos or weird computer screenshots. Connor looks slightly younger – shorter hair and less dark circles around his eyes. Most of them are selfies, pictures with friends at parties, or pictures with his brother. 

He sighs as he quits the app and puts down his phone on the couch, face down. 

...why the fuck is he stalking Connor’s Instagram? He stands to gain absolutely nothing from this anyway. 

But fuck, it’s only Monday, he has to wait till Wednesday to see Connor at lab, and it’s not like they’re gonna talk or anything – hell, they only talked today because Connor forgot his thing on Hank’s laptop. And he doesn’t ever see Connor outside of class...

...there’s probably better use of your time, Hank.

He gets up and walks around the house. Sumo notices him moving from the couch and excitedly walks over to him, so Hank pets his head. 

Maybe he should take Sumo out for a walk. He already did this afternoon after he came back from school, but it’s not like there’s anything to do. He could study, but he just spent so much time working on his homework, he’s not really feeling it…

He sits back down on the couch, and his hand inevitably reaches for his phone again. 

Of course the first thing that appears as soon as he unlocked it was the instagram, still on Connor’s profile, of course. 

He can’t help but feel a bit of guilt as he continues scrolling down. 

...is this wrong? 

Traci and Kelsey were doing it too, so it’s probably okay, isn’t it? This is a totally normal thing students do to their TAs. In high school he and his friends used to look for their teachers on Facebook, too – this isn’t different. People are allowed to be a curious, right? It’s not like Hank has a vested interest or anything like that, this is a totally casual, innocent thing. 

  
  


So he tries not to be too disappointed when Friday rolls around and he doesn’t hear anything back from Connor. 

Connor’s probably busy – hell, last Saturday he was busy grading, what are the chances he’s free this week?

Or maybe he’s forgotten that Hank even popped the question at all, which is completely understandable. Connor must have talked to a lot of people during the week – and so does Hank, now that he thinks about it, so why the fuck is he so hung up over something he mentioned in passing last Sunday? It’s not like he was looking forward to it or anything. 

Maybe Hank should’ve said something during lab, or he could’ve emailed Connor. But maybe Connor would’ve found that creepy, too, especially if Hank’s had asked him if he’s free on Friday in front of all the other students. That would have been awkward, and would also have landed Hank a Title IX violation. So it was probably good that he didn’t follow up, but at what cost?

He was settling in for another TV night with Sumo when he got a call. 

_ “You busy, Hank?” _

“No, not really,” Hank replied, “Just watching TV at home. What about you, Jeffrey?”

_ “You know, the usual. Hey, we haven’t seen you in a while, you wanna get drinks with me and Ben?” _

“Sure, not like I got anything better to do.”

  
  


“For fuck’s sake, Hank, and here we thought you were getting an education!”

“I am getting an education!” Hank vehemently defends, “It’s not my fucking fault my TA is cute!”

Hank now regrets ever handing his phone (which he wouldn’t do if he wasn’t four drinks in) to Ben. Jeffrey’s sitting next to him, looking over his shoulder and giggling helplessly. 

“Well, when you said you were going back to college, being ghosted by a cute boy is not a problem I ever expected to come up,” Ben comments as he continues scrolling.

“But he’s really pretty,” Hank sighs, “Like, really, really…” 

Dramatic pause.

“ _ Really _ pretty.”

Hank made sure to put some emphasis on that third ‘really’. It’s true, he can’t seem to stop thinking about Connor for some reason – he’s sort of this… beautiful cryptid, and Hank is chasing him. Pointlessly.

In what universe would Connor be interested in him anyway? He’s just an old guy now, way past his golden days. If he had met Connor twenty five years ago maybe they could have something going… wait, how old would Connor be twenty five years ago, even? Was he even born? Yeah, Hank’s definitely too old for that.

...he thinks back to that time when Connor was leaning over him, his hand resting on the back of Hank’s chair. That was the closest he has ever been to Connor physically, and it was… great. There’s no other way to describe it.

“He’s also way out of your league.”

“Fucking hell, you don’t need to remind me,” Hank groans as he takes another sip of his drink, “He’s young and smart, he’s working on this startup with his friends – he’s gonna be great. The world is his oyster.”

“Oh, Hank…” Jeffrey laughs as he playfully slaps Hank’s back, “Come on, we’ll find you someone else.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'd love to hear your thoughts on the au!! tell me all your ta shenanigans lmao  
> catch me on twitter [@1isblue](https://twitter.com/1isblue)


	3. trader joe's

Saturdays are always interesting.

It’s the only day of the weekend where he can truly relax, do the things that makes him happy, because he still has school on Friday, and he has to do homework on Sunday. That being said, Saturday also depends on what happened on Friday night. If he’d gone out drinking, then it’s guaranteed to be a terrible Saturday, but if not... maybe it’ll be okay. 

And this Friday night went… okay. 

“Anything fun happened last night?”

“Well, I didn’t go anywhere,” Connor replied as he‘s scrolling down his phone, “I finally got around to watching Black Mirror. It’s pretty good.”

That part is true. Sure, it’s an old show, some of the stories don’t really make sense anymore, but he can certainly see how they would have been interesting back when the show was first released. It’s not like he had anything better to do last night, but that’s not his fault. 

Or is it? 

No it’s not. Hank should have called him first. 

…but he’s the one in the position of power here, being the TA and all that. Maybe he should’ve reached out to Hank first. 

But if that’s the case, why did Hank bother asking him out during office hours? Or is he the one who’s reading too deeply into their interactions? Hank definitely asked him if they can ‘hang out’, though, so he’s the one who started all this and not follow through? 

“You’re out of sour cream chips.”

Connor sighs as he sits up from the couch. Niles is in the kitchen, opening the cupboards to look for food.

“Stop taking my shit!”

“Well, start eating them, then,” Niles shoots back as he takes out a bag of Oreos, “We should get more snacks, by the way.”

“Get it yourself. You have a job now.”

“I’m gonna tell mum you’re not feeding me.”

“I’m barely feeding myself, bitch. I get paid fifteen per hour – at least mum’s sending you money.”

Niles walks over and sits down on the couch, next to Connor. He tears open the packaging and offers it to Connor, so he takes one. 

“When do you need to be at the museum again?”

“The show starts at six, so probably around four,” Niles replied, “So we should go to lunch now, go get groceries, and then you can take a nap while I get ready, and we leave the house at three thirty.”

“Sounds good.”

Connor continues to busy himself, looking through his phone. Connor’s not even really reading or looking at anything in particular; he just doesn’t feel like talking right now. Maybe a part of him is still kind of disappointed about what happened – or didn’t happen – last night. 

Maybe it’s… for the best. 

Hank must have realized this, too. If they start something now, it would not look good for either of them.

Oh well. Another one will come around eventually. 

...it’s not like he’s been saying that for the past five years. 

“Where do you wanna go for lunch?” Connor asks as he finally puts his phone down, “There’s a new sushi place–”

“Answer my question.”

“Huh?”

Niles sighs, “I just asked you if something happened last night.”

“I told you, I watched Black Mirror, it’s good.” Connor sighs – “Can’t a man read the news in peace?”

Niles squints slightly. Clearly that answer isn’t satisfactory, but what else is Connor supposed to say, the truth?

That’s just embarrassing. Niles is gonna laugh at him for having a crush on another old guy, tell him he has no chance of getting it on with Hank, promise to find him another cute undergrad – and he does, he always comes through when he says he’s gonna find someone for Connor – this has happened way too many times at this point, in that same sequence every time. 

  
  


Of course the first thing Niles asks when he gets into the car is “why do you have your rainy day playlist on?”

Connor tried to dodge the conversation, as always – “I’ll tell you at the restaurant,” he had said, to which Niles said, “Wow, we’re keeping secrets now?”

He truly is a master of psychological manipulation. Connor sometimes wishes he can have just a tiny bit of that. 

“How old is he again?”

“I don’t remember…” Connor sighs as he slows down by a stop sign, “Fifty? Fifty one?”

“You’ve done worse,” Niles replied, smiling to himself. “I’m gonna look him up now.”

Connor shakes his head.

The drive to Trader Joe’s takes fifteen minutes, and they just spent most of it talking about Hank. 

“He looks like if Santa tried to assimilate into society,” Niles comments, “Oh, here’s a picture of him while he was younger.”

“He was a detective or something, he probably has lots of pictures in the newspaper.”

“Anyway, you  _ absolutely  _ has no chance this time,” Niles says, which is exactly what Connor expected to hear.

“I know, he’s my student and all that…”

“So leave him alone. I’ll find you someone else.”

Connor pulls into the parking lot and starts looking around for an empty spot. It’s Saturday morning, so it’s relatively crowded.

“You only find me people who like you.”

“Yeah, and we’re like, pretty similar, right?”

Connor sighs and wishes he can say “absolutely not”, but that might hurt Niles’s feelings. They look the same, they have the same voice, and.. their similarities pretty much end there. 

He parks his car and turns it off – Niles gets out of the car, first, followed by Connor. 

“Should I have texted him?” Connor asks – “I just didn’t wanna make it awkward, you know?”

“No, I think you did fine,” Niles replied, “If you’re gonna start dating a student, the least you can do is make it look like he started it first.”

“How do I tell him that, though?”

“Fuck, you really like this guy, huh?” Niles shakes his head, “I don’t know, email him or something.”

“But then that’s me starting the conversation!”

“I don’t know, Connor, you’re in grad school.”

Connor was about to say something mean to Niles when he suddenly noticed a dog sticking his head out of a car window, curiously looking around the parking lot. He notices Niles and Connor walking past his car, and starts barking excitedly. 

“Connor, no.”

“Come on, Niles, I’m just gonna say hi,” Connor replied, quickly walking over to the car before Niles can stop him. 

“Hey, buddy!”

Sumo excitedly barks as Connor pets his head, and Niles could only sigh as he rolls his eyes. 

“Connor, you can’t pet every dog you see on the street.”

“Yes I can,” Connor replied, “I mean, not service dogs, for sure. But look at how happy he is!”

“His owner’s gonna come out of the store any second now and call the cops.” Niles looks around, “And when that happens, I want out. I don’t know you, I’m not your brother–”

“My name is Connor! What’s your name?”

Suddenly the door next to Connor cracks open, and Connor swore he felt a chill run up his spine. The owner was here the whole time, watching Connor, this random stranger, walk up to their car and start talking to their dog, they must be thinking how weird he is–

And then he sees that it’s Hank, and he nearly blacked out. 

He just wants to grab Niles, run as fast as possible to his car, and drive away to Canada or something. Fuck graduating, fuck the startup, fuck everything–

“I call him Sumo.”

“Oh…” 

Connor retracts his hand, suddenly unsure what would be the best course of action. Hank is the last person he thought he would see at a Trader Joe’s parking lot. 

The conversation he just had with Niles replays in his mind. His disappointment at being ghosted by Hank, him essentially spending the whole night trying to distract himself with Black Mirror, him wanting to talk to Hank, somehow–

No time for that now. 

“Sorry, I just… um…” 

Connor fidgets a little – it must have seemed weird to Hank, how casually Connor just came up to his window and petted his dog. 

“I… I like dogs!” he said with a big, nervous smile – “When I get a real house one day I’d like to have one. They’re just great.”

“Oh, yeah?”

Hank smiles, nodding to himself as he mindlessly pets Sumo’s head. 

So now Hank is this big, lovely guy with a cute, friendly dog. Connor really must have stayed on Santa’s good side last year. 

“Your friend, Connor?” Niles asks as he approaches them, either to save Connor from this situation or shove him deeper into the hole –

“Hi. Niles, by the way.”

“I’m Hank,” Hank introduces himself, “I’m his student, actually. He’s the TA for my 3D modelling class.”

Connor quietly wishes he didn’t have to say the ‘student’ part so loud – he doesn’t need to be reminded that he shouldn’t be doing anything with Hank.

Niles puts his hand on Connor’s shoulder and gives it a squeeze, digging his nails into Connor’s flesh – fuck it hurts, and Connor winces, but tries his best to hide it as a smile. 

“Anyway, are you busy tonight?” Niles asks the dreaded question, “Want some extra credit opportunity?”

“Uh, yeah, sure?” Hank replied, and Connor can’t really read Hank’s face to tell if he’s taking this seriously or not – part of him is also terrified at… whatever the fuck Niles is going to propose as this dumb ‘extra credit’ bullshit–

“I’m having this art show tonight at the Detroit Institute of Arts,” Niles replied, “It’s this project I worked on with a bunch of friends over the summer, about abstract art and stuff. You should come, and Connor can give you a couple points on a quiz or something.”

“That sounds really interesting, actually. What time does it start?”

“It starts at six, but you know, you can come anytime, and you don’t have to stay the whole time either.”

He nudges at Connor’s arm, trying to get him to say something, but Connor has been busy trying to construct the nearest escape from this conversation in his head.

“Sure, sounds great then!”

Connor could hear himself saying those words, but he had no idea where they came from. 

“See you tonight, then,” Niles said as he starts dragging Connor away, still processing what just happened.

  
  


“What the fuck was that, Niles?”

“Excuse me, I just set you up with a date,” Niles replied, picking up a bottle of juice from the shelf, “I would appreciate a thank you card, or at the very least some ice cream.”

“And you just told me I shouldn’t make it look like I started it!”

“Well, you guys are gonna run into each other at the museum. A complete coincidence.” Niles turns to him with a smile, “And then you guys can get dinner or something, and if that goes well, don’t worry about picking me up, I’ll call a cab.”

Connor sighs as he looks away. This may be an unexpected turn of events, but… not a bad one, probably. 

It’s no big deal, yeah. Hank’s just going to see the art exhibition, because he wants some extra credit. Connor can just log into Blackboard later and add two points to a homework or something, and that’s it. There’s nothing more to it, he’s just overthinking–

“Will you at least say thank you?”

“...I’ll get you ice cream.”

  
  
  
  



End file.
